Management consulting and management control
Cardinal Management supports small and medium-sized enterprises with management control and the adequate arrangements required by Article 2086 of the Italian Civil Code, through a monthly Balanced Scorecard: a management dashboard that translates strategy into clear, up-to-date indicators.
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About us
A group dedicated to running the business: direction, management control and adequate arrangements.
Cardinal Management was founded to bring to small and medium-sized enterprises a rigorous method of business management, usually reserved for larger organisations. The premise is simple: a business is run better when it measures what matters and observes it continuously, not only once the accounts are closed.
At the heart of the service is a proprietary management-control portal, built around the Balanced Scorecard. Alongside this tool, Cardinal provides — where requested — management consulting and the role of external provider of the adequate arrangements required by law. The goal is not to produce reports, but to put the entrepreneur in a position to decide early and with full awareness.
Cardinal Management brings together a team of experienced professionals with years of experience in business management and management control.
The method
Four perspectives, one course. Like the four cardinal points of the compass rose, the Balanced Scorecard keeps together the directions a business cannot afford to lose sight of.
Devised by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton at Harvard University, the Balanced Scorecard is today one of the most complete management-control systems. It does not look only at accounting figures: it balances four complementary perspectives, so that financial results are read together with their causes — customers, processes, people.
Profitability, margins, balance-sheet and financial equilibrium. The direction all the others point towards.
Acquisition, loyalty and satisfaction: where tomorrow's revenue comes from.
Efficiency, quality and operational punctuality: how the business creates value.
Skills, organisation and climate: the foundations of every lasting result.
In the Cardinal portal the four perspectives are tailored to each company's sector, with dedicated indicators and targets.
Adequate arrangements
Since 2019 the law has required entrepreneurs to put adequate arrangements in place. The Balanced Scorecard is the way to make them concrete and operational.
Article 2086, paragraph 2, of the Italian Civil Code requires entrepreneurs operating in corporate or collective form to establish an organisational, administrative and accounting arrangement adequate to the nature and size of the business, also for the purpose of the timely detection of the crisis and of going concern.
This is not a formality: it is a management duty, whose breach exposes directors to liability. Many SMEs, however, have only historical accounting data, which photograph the past. What is needed instead are up-to-date, forward-looking indicators, able to flag problems before they become irreversible.
The Balanced Scorecard answers precisely this need, because it covers all three arrangements required by the rule:
Roles, skills and processes made measurable.
KPIs, reporting and structured information flows.
Financial and balance-sheet data integrated with forward-looking indicators.
Continuous monitoring of leading indicators flags the signs of crisis in good time, while there is still room to act.
In this way the entrepreneur does not merely read what has already happened: they have a continuous system for running the business, consistent with what the law requires today.
Strategic analysis
Before translating strategy into numbers, you need a clear picture of the strategy itself. SWOT analysis brings together the internal and external factors of the business: the snapshot the Balanced Scorecard starts from.
SWOT — from the initials of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats — is a strategic-analysis tool that brings together the internal factors of the business (its strengths and weaknesses, what the company can govern) and the external factors of the context and the market (its opportunities and threats). Four dimensions, read together.
The company's own advantages: skills, resources and positioning to build on.
The internal limits to keep in check: areas of fragility, organisational or financial gaps.
The openings offered by the market and the context: demand, technologies, changes to seize.
The external risks to monitor: competition, the economic cycle, regulatory change.
Inside the business, SWOT provides strategic awareness: it helps set priorities and ground decisions in a clear picture, not in impressions. It is the starting point of strategy. The Balanced Scorecard takes it from there and translates that picture into objectives and indicators monitored over time: SWOT is the strategic snapshot, the Balanced Scorecard the continuous monitoring of execution. Two tools that complete each other.
Banks, investors and partners assess the strategic soundness of the business, not only its balance-sheet figures. A structured SWOT strengthens the business plan and credit applications, supports creditworthiness and communicates mature governance. It is also consistent with the adequate arrangements required by Article 2086 of the Italian Civil Code, which presuppose the assessment of risks and going concern.
Coming soon SWOT analysis is a service under development in the Cardinal portal, integrated with the Balanced Scorecard: the strategic snapshot and its continuous monitoring, in a single tool.
The service
Three levels, one tool. You choose the degree of support based on the needs of the business, with the option to step up over time.
The company accesses the Cardinal BSC portal and manages its monthly Balanced Scorecard independently: data entry, dashboard, history and targets. The professional tool, at your team's disposal.
The portal is combined with Cardinal Management's service: calibration of the indicators to the sector, periodic processing of the data and a reasoned reading of the results. Outsourced management control, without building an in-house function.
The most complete level: portal, management control and ongoing management advisory in support of decisions.
You can start with the portal and step up when the business is ready.
Sectors
The four perspectives stay; the indicators change. The portal calibrates KPIs, targets and charts to the specifics of each sector.
Can't find your sector? The Balanced Scorecard perspectives adapt to any activity: let's talk.
Tell us about your company: together, with no obligation, we will assess how to set up your management dashboard and your adequate arrangements.
Write to us: info@cardinalbsc.it